Harry Potter and the Bucket of Money

Gearing up for a screening of "Harry Potter and the Flaming Whatsis" this morning (actually, it's the "HP and the Half-Blood Prince," but I don't know what that means, so...).

It's the sixth "Harry Potter" film in 9 years, and it got me to thinking about how much money the series has made. It's actually an interesting story, -ish.

The first film, 2001's "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's (or Philosopher's, depding on where you saw it) Stone," was the most profitable in real dollars: $317.5 million domestically, $657.2M abroad. "Chamber of Secrets" dropped by about $50M in each of those markets; "Prisoner of Azkaban" dropped yet more, earning $249.5M here and $546.1M abroad, and then the tide turned: "Goblet of Fire" grossed $290M and $606M, and "Order of the Phoenix" did $292M and "$646.2M.

In total, the five films have grossed $1.411 billion in the US and $3.072B abroad, for a total worldwide average of $896.7 million per picture, more or less, against a production cost of about $105 million apiece.

I'm not a tremendous fan of the films, which I think have varied in quality even as they have improved over a fairly tepid start. And I'm not shareholder of Time Warner, who make and distribute the pictures. But I took enough math as a lad to know that $896.7 is an excellent return on $105. And I'm pretty sure that the people who decided to make two films of the next (and last) "Harry Potter" book took at least as much math as me, so....